AQE 2015 to focus on ways to improve air quality and emissions monitoring

AQE 2015, the international Air Quality and Emissions show, will take place in Telford, UK, on 22^nd and 23^rd April. Created to provide an update on the latest regulations, technologies, methods and research in air quality and emissions monitoring, AQE 2015 will run at a time when concern with air pollution and climate change has never been greater. Organiser Marcus Pattison says: “Visitors to AQE 2015 will be able to find new ways improve the quality and reliability of monitoring, whilst ensuring compliance with all relevant regulations and standards, but importantly, they will be able to find new ways to do so, whilst also lowering costs.”

 

AQE 2015 (www.AQEshow.com) is the eighth in a series of specialist air monitoring events and will take place at the International Centre in Telford. In common with the previous events, AQE 2015 will also include over 50 free walk-in/walk-out workshops and an exhibition featuring hundreds of the world’s leading organisations in air quality and emissions monitoring products and services. The Conference and Workshops at AQE 2015 have been approved for Continuing Professional Development (CPD), providing delegates with further reassurance that their visit will be worthwhile.

 

Visitors to AQE 2015 travel from all over the world and come from a wide variety of sectors including central government, local authorities, industrial process operators, test houses, consultants, researchers, academics, instrument manufacturers, the media and anyone with a professional interest in air quality.

 

Conference, Wednesday 22^nd April: ‘Emissions monitoring challenges facing operators and manufacturers’

The first day’s conference will commence with David Graham from E.ON Technologies explaining how stacks are defined under legislation that aggregates units together. He will also provide a regulatory update on the Industrial Emissions Directive and the Medium Combustion Plant Directive. Jonathan Clark from Syngenta will then outline the challenges facing operators with small stacks in relation to periodic monitoring and compliance with standards. Continuing this theme, Dan Jones from E.ON Technologies will address issues facing the operators of large stacks, particularly in relation to staff safety and sample representativeness.

 

In the afternoon, Derek Myers from REC will provide an overview of the challenges facing test laboratories and others, when sampling dust from wet stacks, and finally, Rod Robinson from NPL will explain the measurement and calculation of stack flow rate for mass emissions reporting purposes.

 

Conference, Thursday 23rd April: Air Quality – Latest developments and tools

Ambient air quality issues are of course extremely localised, and Stephen Stratton from Ricardo AEA will provide a summary of a study on exposure to pollution at buggy height, adult height and air quality station height. Jacqueline Barr from IBI/Transport Scotland will then deliver a presentation on a Sensor Rotation Project in which a network of new monitoring technologies has been applied to traffic management and control systems. In the final presentation of the morning, David Green from Kings College London will report on a series of PM Speciation Studies looking at the makeup of particulate matter measured across the UK and how it varies.

In the afternoon, Martine Van Poppel from VITO Belgium, will explain the results of the CARBOTRAF EU Project which examined ways in which Black Carbon and carbon dioxide levels can be reduced by the latest monitoring technologies and effective traffic management.  In the final presentation, David Carslaw from King’s College London will describe ‘OpenAir’ (open-source software) which is a free software tool for the analysis and visualisation of air quality data.

 

International Exhibition

With more than 90 stands featuring hundreds of the world’s leading organisations in air quality monitoring, the AQE exhibition will provide a unique opportunity to see all of the latest developments in instrumentation and monitoring services. For example, in the emissions monitoring sector, DURAG will demonstrate a back-scatter optical stack monitor that can be installed on stacks up to 600 DegC between 0.7 – 20m in diameter. ABB will feature the new ACF5000 hot/wet FTIR extractive continuous emissions monitoring system, and AMS Analitica (Italy) will present the combination of a new portable sampler combined with a new portable Isokinetic Calculator. Pollution SRL will launch Polaris, a lightweight FID analyser, and SICK will showcase a total mercury monitoring solution in addition to ‘the perfect solution for pre-abatement monitoring on difficult processes.’ EiUK’s RASI800 emissions analyser has recently received MCERTS certification and this instrument will feature on the company’s stand.

PCME’s stand will feature here new technologies: Ultrasonic Flow Monitoring, a new controller for communications with PCME’s dust, leak and flow measurement sensors, and a new digitally networked multi-compartment baghouse monitoring system.

For ambient monitoring, there will be a wide range of the latest technologies on show. For example, Air Monitors will demonstrate AQMesh pods – low cost, battery powered, wireless ambient monitors, and AQE will provide the first opportunity to see the new DUVAS (Differential Ultra Violet Absorption Spectrometer) portable battery powered multigas monitor which enables monitoring on the move with high time-resolution and near reference monitor accuracy.

There will be a poster competition under the theme: ‘Air Pollution is bad for our health – the impact of personal responsibilities and local action to deliver clean air.’ Sponsored by Environmental Protection UK (EPUK) and Environmental Technology Services, the competition will take place within the event’s exhibition hall. 

 

Workshops

Over 50 free walk-in workshops, mostly provided by exhibitors, will address a wide variety of air quality monitoring themes including ambient air, stack emissions, occupational safety, nuisance dust, fugitive emissions and boundary monitoring.

On the first day of AQE, the workshops will cover the measurement of particulates, nitrogen oxides, TOC, dioxins and many other toxic gases. These presentations will cover stack emissions as well as fugitive and fenceline monitoring. Intriguingly, Quantitech’s workshop will pose the question ‘VOCs why speciate?’ and there will also be presentations on dust modeling and the employment of the ‘Internet of Things’ in environmental monitoring.

The second say’s workshops will include an explanation of a wide variety of applications for FTIR (including rocket science), as well as a presentation on engine emissions monitoring and optical gas imaging for fugitive VOCs. Air Monitors will unveil the latest trial data on AQMesh pods and there will be presentations on metals and dust monitoring in addition to a wide variety of other parameters.

 

Demonstration Arena

A section of a ‘life-size’ chimney stack will be constructed in the demo area, fitted with a range of different CEMS (Continuous Emissions Monitoring Systems), providing visitors with an insight into the latest online monitoring systems.

Under a ‘Monitoring on the Move’ theme, the ambient air quality monitoring section of the arena will feature an exciting variety of monitoring applications highlighting the latest wireless, battery-powered monitoring technology. For example, a mannequin will be fitted with a range of ambient and personal monitors and an electric car will feature a new high-speed multiparameter monitoring technology that will be ideal for surveys requiring spatial and temporal data. For the first time, AQE will also provide live demonstrations of air quality monitoring at different heights; a remote control quadcopter and hot air balloons will carry monitors to different heights whilst feeding live data to iPads.

The charge for attending the Conference is £55 +VAT per day or £100 for both days. However, entrance to the exhibition and workshops is free and pre-registration guarantees free lunch, free refreshments and free parking. Online registration for AQE 2015 is now open at www.aqeshow.com.